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The 2016 Major League Soccer season featured 20 total clubs (17 based in the United States, 3 based in Canada). The regular season began on March 6 and ended on October 23. The playoffs began on October 26 and ended on December 10. The defending MLS Cup champions were the Portland Timbers, while the New York Red Bulls were the defending Supporters' Shield winners. FC Dallas won the Supporter's Shield for the first time, and the Seattle Sounders won their first MLS Cup in their history after defeating Toronto FC 5-4 in a penalty kick shootout, after playing to a 0-0 result after regulation and added extra time.

Should a team qualify through more than one method, or should a team from Canada occupy any MLS qualifying place, the next best US team in the overall table would take its place.
One Canada-based team qualifies for the Champions League (NOTE: Canadian teams cannot qualify through MLS):

Player transfers

Allocation ranking

The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a player who is in the MLS allocation list. The MLS allocation list contains select U.S. National Team players and players transferred outside of MLS garnering a transfer fee of at least $500,000. The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2015 season, taking playoff performance into account.[149]

Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club's ranking. At all times each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS season.

^ On January 14, 2016, Colorado Rapids acquired the number 1 allocation ranking (original ranking number 1), a first-round selection (15th overall) in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft, and a second-round selection (33rd overall) in the 2016 SuperDraft from Chicago Fire in exchange for the number 2 allocation ranking (original ranking number 2), a first-round selection (12th overall) in the 2016 SuperDraft, and a second-round selection (22nd overall) in the 2016 SuperDraft.

^ On August 3, 2016, Philadelphia Union acquired the number 1 allocation ranking (original ranking number 2) from Chicago Fire in exchange for the number 2 allocation ranking (original ranking number 3), a first-round selection in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, and the Discovery Priority on a player to be named later.

Television

United States

In the 2016 MLS season, 96 games aired in the United States on national television. English-language broadcasts once again included Soccer Sunday doubleheaders -- 29 games on ESPN and 5 on ESPN2 (mainly on Sunday afternoons), 4 on Fox, and 30 on Fox Sports 1 (mainly on Sunday evenings). The 2016 season marked MLS's debut on the Fox network channel.[152] Spanish-language broadcasts included 28 games on UniMás (mainly on Friday evenings).[152]

2016 attendances

The following is a list of the average attendance for each of the twenty MLS teams at their regular-season games. It includes the team, the average attendance for the 2016 regular season and the 2015 regular season, the percentage change in attendance from season-to-season, the home venue, the home venue's capacity, and the percent of capacity.[166]

Note: Vancouver's and Seattle's attendances are both over 100% capacity because, for select games, they open up additional sections above the regular limited capacity. Orlando's and New England's attendances are over 100% because their capacities are artificial; both teams regularly sell more tickets than the limit. San Jose's attendance is over 100% capacity because they played one game at Levi's Stadium (68,000 capacity).